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Comment by philo23 | Hacker News Reader

A little bit off topic, but in case anyone wants to try out the new Steam Deck UI on their desktop you can do it without installing Steam OS, just follow these steps:

1) Quit Steam

2) Find the "package" directory inside of the main Steam install directory (typically C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam on Windows, ~/.steam/steam on Linux)

3) Inside there create a file called "beta" (no extension), with the following content: steampal_stable_9a24a2bf68596b860cb6710d9ea307a76c29a04d

4) Reopen Steam with the -gamepadui argument

Fair warning: it's a little bit janky when it's not running on Steam Deck hardware. At least it was when I tried it out, but it'll give you a pretty decent idea what it's like. Also to undo it just delete that file and relaunch Steam without the extra argument.

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It's janky not because it's not running on Deck hardware, but because it's not running as system session with Gamescope as compositor, meaning that what you get is simply non-integrated new HTML UI for Steam.

how do you know this? how does one figure this kind of thing out?

Compare the Steam directories and files from a non-Steam Deck Linux install to a Steam Deck one.

I wish I could take credit, but back while I was waiting for my preorder I really wanted to try out the new UI and found the instructions originally here on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/t57l4t/how_to_ge... but if I had to guess how it was found, someone probably just checked that file on a steam deck or from it's recovery image image.

That file normally contains the name of the client beta you're currently opted into in Steam's settings (normally only "publicbeta" is the only public option) so it's probably the first place someone checked.

> C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam on Windows, ~/.steam/steam on Linux

FYI you can stop worrying about special casing Windows and just use bog standard slash as separator when discussing path names virtually anywhere where they come up.

Except those are completely different paths on the two systems (even if the path separator was the same).

And it's ok to use the default seperator for whichever OS you're using.

It's gonna be a different path anyways when you're talking about windows, may as well use the right syntax.

This thinking of backslash as being "the right syntax" for Windows paths is pretty much the reason why the earlier comment was posted.

I don't follow. Add far as I know, backslash is the "right" path separator on Windows - it works everywhere, is the documented canonical path separator, and has the fewest compatibility issues with programs.

And even if it was on equal footing with forward slash on Windows (which it isn't), bringing it up as an alternative just seemed off-topic.

point is - it has been possible to use the forward slash in windows for over 20y... except in some UIs that insist that it has to be backslash.

Point is, why bring up the non-default alternative path separator that doesn't work universally in Windows when the original comment was correct as is?

Uh... "Except"? What does that observation have to do with anything? It was a gentle reminder that reaching for backslash is not necessary. Nowhere does it say "you can paste the same absolute path in on any system, without regard for where the files actually live".

> What does that observation have to do with anything?

About as much as the comment I replied to did, I suppose.

Since the paths were right as originally written, and since changing from backslash to forward slash doesn't remove the need to list both paths anyway, bringing up the other ways of writing the windows path seemed unnecessary.

But I was feeling charitable and thought that perhaps you read the original comment too quickly and assumed that the paths were the same except for the slash direction, which would give your comment a little more purpose, and which also gives my reply a little purpose as well.

If that wasn't the case then neither post has any purpose.

> But I was feeling charitable

Making assumptions about the other person that set you up to argue against whatever position that entails is not what it means to be charitable. It is the opposite. It is uncharitable. (At least to the other person; it's charitable, perhaps, to you.)

> neither post has any purpose

Wrong. It has the same purpose now as it did from the beginning—reminding/alerting people to the fact that using backslashes in paths just because you're talking about Windows is not necessary.

Using one of the correct path separators for the OS isn't necessary? And someone using one of the correct path separators needs a reminder that other path separtors exist?

There was no more purpose to that than reminding someone that they could have used UNC paths, URIs, 8.3 short names, ...

> Using one of the correct path separators for the OS isn't necessary?

Using backslash specifically is unnecessary.

There's no point wasting more time here from this point onward. You either refuse to understand, or you understand and refuse to show it. It's not productive to believe that's not going to change.

How is using forward slash less unnecessary than using backslash? So much more so that it needed to be pointed out without prompting?

I mean backslash is the canonical path separator on Windows, so pointing out that one could use something else was helpful how?

> You either refuse to understand, or you understand and refuse to show it

I actually don't understand the motivation for the comment at all.

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